Spiral brush section

Abstract

A helical brush section consisting of a split tubular support which is offset at the split longitudinally to provide helical edges terminating in longitudinally extending contact shoulders at its opposed ends. This section has a bristle-carrying strip helically wound thereon. Multiples of this section are adapted to be disposed on a mandrel with their adjacent edges and shoulders in interfitting nesting engagement to form a continuous helical rotary brush.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is: 
     
       1. A helical brush section for use in axially-aligned relationship to form a rotary brush comprising a tubular bristle-carrying support, said support having helically extending edges at its opposed ends terminating in longitudinally extending contact shoulders for engaging adjacent similar sections, said tubular support being rolled sheet metal joined at a longitudinal joint where the adjacent edges of the sheet are offset longitudinally to form the opposed end helical edges and contact shoulders. 
     
     
       2. A helical brush section according to claim 1 in which a bristle-carrying brush strip is wound helically about the tubular support in convolutions of selected pitch from one contact shoulder to the other and is secured thereto at its ends. 
     
     
       3. A helical brush section according to claim 2 in which the bristle-carrying strip is in the form of a channel having bristles of U-form mounted therein with their closed ends in the channel, and a retaining wire extends through such ends and beyond the adjacent ends of the channel with such ends secured to said tubular support. 
     
     
       4. An assembly of helical brush sections of the structure defined in claim 2 disposed on a mandrel in axial contact with their adjacent ends interfitting. 
     
     
       5. An assembly according to claim 4 including means for clamping the sections in axial contact on the mandrel. 
     
     
       6. The method of forming a helical brush section which comprises forming a tubular support by offsetting the adjacent edges of a longitudinally-split tube at the split thereof to form opposed helical edges at its ends terminating in contacting shoulders, and mounting thereon a helically-extending bristle-carrying strip. 
     
     
       7. The method of claim 6 in which the strip is formed as a channel with radially-projecting bristles, and winding the strip on the tubular support helically from one shoulder to the other where it is attached to the support. 
     
     
       8. The method of claim 7 in which the strip has U-shaped bristles held in the channel by means including a retaining wire having ends extending beyond the channel, and welding the channel to the support. 
     
     
       9. The method of claim 8 including welding the extending ends of the wire to the support at said shoulders.